New trial awarded over failure to call witness

The Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a Superior Court judge’s decision to award a new trial to a criminal defendant whose trial counsel failed to call a witness who was mentioned in counsel’s opening argument to the jury.

“The judge who had presided over the trial granted the motion, concluding that, in a case in which identity was the central issue and defense counsel had essentially promised in his opening statement that the jury would hear from a witness, Norman Levesque, who had provided a description of the shooter markedly different from that of the defendant, it was ineffective not to call that witness because of minor credibility concerns,” Justice Robert J. Cordy wrote for a unanimous SJC. “Because we discern no abuse of discretion or other error of law in the judge’s findings and conclusions, we affirm his order granting the defendant a new trial.”